There has recently been proposed, in general terms, a form of applyable protective barrier coating which may be used on the outside surface of a liquid container, such as a fuel tank or a fuel pipeline, to defeat liquid leakage which might occur as a consequence of a penetration wound, such as from a bullet strike, created in the exposed wall of such a container. This general coating concept is described in prior-filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/067,525, filed Feb. 25, 2005 for “Projectile Barrier and Method”, and reference is made herein to that prior-filed regular patent application for the purpose of setting forth a background foundation relevant to the present invention.
In general terms, that prior-filed regular application describes a plural-layer coating in which differently functioning layers are furnished to provide different kinds of wound-closure responses, including liquid-reaction responses, to a liquid-container penetration wound. One of the wound-closure response mechanisms described in this earlier application is offered by a specific high-elastomeric material which alone forms plural ones of the several layers that are employed. This material responds to a puncture wound both with an elastomeric, resilience-memory response, and to some extent with a liquid-imbibing, material-swelling response. Another mechanism is furnished by another plurality of layers, each including a body of essentially the same high-elastomeric material which is used in the elastomeric-material-only layers, along with a distribution of dedicated liquid-imbiber beads that are embedded in this elastomeric body to furnish significant liquid-imbibing, and three-dimensional material swelling and coagulating, responses as a consequence of contact with any liquid which might leak from a penetrated container.
In observing the basic advantages offered by this prior general proposal for a multi-layer protective anti-leak costing, we have discovered that it is possible, utilizing preferably only three layers in a protective barrier coating, to tailor the respective structures of each of these three layers in such a fashion that a protective anti-leak coating can be prepared which may be specially and very effectively optimized to deal specifically with different liquid-container anti-leak protection situations.
In particular, we have observed (a) that a relatively wide range of materials, well beyond those specific materials suggested in the mentioned prior-filed Regular U.S. Patent Application, may be employed as a family from which the most useful elastomeric and liquid-imbiber bead materials may be selected for a particular situation, (b) that the relative thicknesses of different layers in an overall multi-layer coating structure may be adjusted for optimal performance, and (c) that a particular, and most desirable, by-weight population of selected liquid-imbiber bead-like elements may be used in a layer which is formed with an embedding body of a high-elastomeric material. We have also determined that, in each of such three layers wherein high-elastomeric material is employed, the specific elastomeric materials used in these three layers need not be the same. For example, for certain applications, an elastomeric material may be chosen which offers, in addition to an elastomeric memory response to a container penetration, liquid imbibing and material-swelling responses, in other applications, an elastomeric material may be selected which offer only an elastomeric memory response.
Further, we have determined that providing a user with a range of elastomeric material and imbiber-bead population selectivity, it is possible to optimize individually each of the three layers in an overall coating for best performance in accordance with a particular kind of container anti-leakage protection which is desired.
These and other important advantages and features of the present invention, which improve upon the invention disclosed in the above-mentioned, prior-filed, Regular U.S. patent application, will become more fully apparent as the description of the present invention which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.